Volunteer

Planning for Christmas is a Year-long Event

If you like greeting people and have an interest in historic preservation, volunteering at the Jacobus Vanderveer House may be right up your alley.

Our primary fundraising event is Colonial Christmas, held each year the first weekend of December. Volunteers can assist the Board of Trustees’ Events Committee with event advertising such as flyers and posters, helping with the mailings, and being on hand at Vanderveer House during the event as docents, refreshment organizers, and vendor assistants.

“There are many slots that volunteers can fill,” said Friends of Jacobus Vanderveer House President Jay Petrillo. “Our board is active but small. We need lots of volunteers to help make our events a success.”                         

Planning for Colonial Christmas starts in June. If you are able to volunteer your time, please call the Friends or Click Here to drop us a email.

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Volunteer Today!

Volunteering can come in a number of ways. Whether it's time or financial support, there is noting more important to this organization than the volunteers that support our efforts.

The Friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer House has tremendous vision for the future state of the Vanderveer House, the surrounding Vanderveer property, as well as the involvement in the development of the historical Pluckemin Artillery Encampment.

Please consider volunteering for one of our committees, fundraisers, sponsorships, or even just financial support.

Please begin your volunteer efforts by completing the simple eMail Request to Volunteer support. Someone from the Friends of JVH will contact you directly.

Intern Opportunity

The Friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer House is a non – profit organization dedicated to the restoration and development of the Jacobus Vanderveer House as a cultural resource in Bedminster, New Jersey. The Vanderveer House is significant in American military history and was listed on both the National and New Jersey registers of historic places in 1995.  Located in River Road Park in Bedminster, the Vanderveer House has been at the center of Bedminster’s rich and colorful history for over two centuries.  Local legend has it that General Henry Knox and his family lived in the Jacobus Vanderveer House during the winter of 1778-1779 while the general commandeered the Continental Artillery that was encamped in nearby Pluckemin. Plans for the restored house call for establishing a museum for exhibiting artifacts from the Pluckemin encampment and featuring programs related to the history of the Revolution. Interpretive exhibits will be designed for the site.

To qualify as a student intern at the Vanderveer House, one must have a background or major course work in American History and have good research and writing capabilities.  Responsibilities would include doing research of the Revolutionary War period through, though not limited to, such resources as local newspapers of the area at the time, searching for references in articles and advertisements to the Vanderveer family, General Henry Knox and the Pluckemin Encampment and American Colonial life in Bedminster.

The Friends have conducted several research projects in the past, including a recent document for museum interpretation of contexts and themes for exhibits and displays. The student intern’s work would be to add to the existing body of material already on file.

The Vanderveer House has won several design awards for its restoration and the Board of Trustees has worked with a prominent and well respected team of architects, archaeologists, historians and researchers including Holt, Morgan, Russell, architects in Princeton, archaeologists Hunter Research, Inc. in Trenton and Linda B. McTeague, preservation planner.  The student would report to the Board of Trustees which is comprised of 18 members and is responsible for raising funds to restore the house and for promoting increased visibility of the Vanderveer project as a whole.

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